Bellefonte Receives Nearly $1 Million State Grant Toward Waterfront Revitalization

Bellefonte Borough has been awarded $941,824 from the state to completely reconstruct Dunlop Street and create a promenade as part of the waterfront revitalization project.

State Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-Benner Township, and state Rep. Kerry Benninghoff, R-Bellefonte, said in a joint announcement on Tuesday the grant was awarded by the Commonwealth Financing Authority’s Multimodal Transportation Funding Program.

“The grant will contribute to the vitality of downtown Bellefonte by enhancing the waterfront and giving the area a boost as a destination for visitors,” Corman said. “It is important that we work to enhance local attractions such as this so we all have the opportunities to enjoy our region’s many beautiful natural resources, historic sites, shopping and more.”

The funding comes as planning moves forward on development of the waterfront property that was formerly home to the Bush House. Bellefonte Waterfront Associates, headed by developers Tom Songer and Mark Morath, intends to build a five- or six-story boutique hotel with a restaurant, banquet and meeting spaces as the first phase of development at High Street end of the property. They also plan to build a separate parking structure in the middle of the property and a retail and residential building at the Lamb Street end.

Songer and Morath said they hoped for the first phase to begin this spring or summer with construction taking nine months to one year. Construction on the retail and condo building would then begin in the spring or summer of 2020.

Dunlop Street — at the rear of the property and adjacent to the the existing Bellefonte mill race that fed water to the historic Gamble Mill — is currently accessible from Lamb and High Streets but does not allow through traffic. As part of the project, Dunlop Street will be reconstructed, repaved and reconfigured to be a two-way street connecting High and Lamb streets. 

With the newly awarded grant, the borough and Bellefonte Waterfront Associates will install a promenade spanning the length of Dunlop Street, wrapping around the hotel to the Spring Creek walkway, acting as a secondary pedestrian pathway to downtown.

“This grant is a strategic investment in the local economy and in the future jobs that this project will create for Bellefonte and the surrounding area,” Benninghoff said. “I am proud to have helped secure this for our community.” 

The total Dunlop Street project cost is about $1.4 million. 

A green space is planned at the far end of the Lamb Street side of the property. Just across Dunlop Street from that is the Gamble Mill, which is not part of the waterfront development property. 

The Gamble Mill has been empty since the restaurant and brewpub there closed in 2015. In November 2018, brothers Chris and Jonathan Virgilio announced plans to purchase and renovate the building and in late February said they still planned to close on the property. Bellefonte borough Manager Ralph Stewart said the borough has been contacted by other interested parties in developing the property if the current sales agreement falls through.

A sketch plan for the Bellefonte waterfront development project. Image provided